Teaching sales, marketing and customer service with humor and enthusiasm

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

I can’t believe May is just around the corner. With that in mind, now is the perfect time to take a good hard look around your winery, the tasting room, picnic and other outdoor areas, the parking lot and any part of the winery buildings or grounds that are open to visitors.

To make the very best impression, everything that visitors come into contact with must be the same quality as the wines your produce and want to sell. So, before visitors start hurtling through the doors in large numbers, it’s time to examine, assess, scrub, polish and spruce up everything, from the sign at the front gate to the to the tasting notes on the bar or counter. How long is it since everything in the tasting room that is not nailed down was moved out of the tasting room, and the whole room swept and dusted? And don’t forget to rearrange your gift items. Regularly changing things around gives your loyal customers, who visit you a few times each year, new things to notice and to buy.

Are the outside areas ready for some brightly colored flowers or greenery to make it fresh and inviting? If not, employ people at the winery who have talents in these areas.

You don’t want anything to be mediocre and that also goes for the website, Facebook and other social media pages. Is it time for a new look, or a few tweaks for your website, or email templates, or headers? I know my website is due for a complete overhaul, a job that I will be undertaking this spring and summer. These days most people are familiar with your winery before they walk in the front door, so their first contact may very well be your website or even Yelp.

Enjoy your spring-cleaning! There is a certain satisfaction in a spotless parking lot, brightly colored plants and a sparkling, well-organized tasting room.